Americans...friends/foes/neither

Nothing like blatant unfairness by a trading partner to get the most global-village girl all riled up. Right now the Americans are making it pretty darn tough to be a free-trade advocate amid growing Canadian nationalist drum-banging.

The irony? The Canadians who deplore Americans for their nationalistic tendencies are following the American footsteps. The second irony? For these Canadians, American nationalism is dangerous and bullying - but in Canada these self-same traits mean you are a "good Canadian", CBC style.

I say we just turn our backs on the world, break out a case of Canadian, burrow into our log cabins and sleep the winter away.

Or perhaps invest in some countervailing duties with teeth.

Who's right? BCTF and Provincial Standoff...

So much for the long, hot days of August – in the education system, things are just starting to heat up.

Which begs the question - who is playing politics with our children and who is trying to build a system that will meet student needs over the next decade?

Is it the teacher’s unions, including the BCTF, who, according the Elections BC, spent over $1.5 million dollars of their member’s money in the provincial election trying to defeat the government? Or is it that same government who played the fear card of an imminent teacher strike in the dying days of the campaign?

Putting aside the BCTF lawsuit brought over the Premier’s allegation that the BCTF was considering job action (which now looks pretty ridiculous given that there IS a strike vote happening on September 20th to 22nd), let’s try to clear through the rhetoric and see if we can figure out where the truths lies.

The starting position of any discussion around education in our province must be this – every single player in this debate has the best interests of our children at heart. Period. To saw anything else is inflammatory and doesn’t serve the best interests of anyone – especially our kids.

The teachers, the government, parents, and Minister of Education Shirley Bond, all want to build an education system that is sustainable over the long-haul.

But, it wouldn’t be politics in BC if they didn’t disagree on the methods required to achieve this great goal, sometimes vehemently with the requisite packed lines on call-in shows and early morning placard-waving on the bridges.

The BCTF contends the system is in chaos and disrepair and that our children are suffering in classrooms that are just not able to meet their needs. They protest that the removal of class-size limits and the reduction of 2500 full-time teaching positions are leaving our children vulnerable to sub-standard educations. And, to be fair, they really do need a contract.

The government, of course, has an entirely different perspective. They feel that increases in the budget – over 10% in five years – and the highest ever level of per student funding are critical improvements to budgets that stagnated under the NDP government.

79% of BC students graduate from high school – again a record. BC students are among the best in the world in math, reading and science in a recently released Programme for International Student Assessment.

Clearly our system is working and our teachers are doing a heck of a good job in teaching our children. Let’s give them credit they deserve and get them their contract.

So, to revisit the BCTF issues… Fewer teachers? Well, there are 30,000 fewer students due to our aging population. And the average elementary school class size? 23.2 students - up a whopping 0.6 of a student from 2000-01 number of 22.5 students. Hardly an indication that schools are going to hell in a hand basket.

Can the government and the BCTF work together to build an even better system? Absolutely – there is always room for improvement. But the BCTF had better get some stronger arguments in place if they are going to initiate job action and truly jeopardize the school year for our kids.

Students don’t deserve politics getting in the way of their educations.

As seen today in 24 Hours Daily.

Sometimes it isn't enough just to DO a good job...

This week the Vancouver Police Department took the unusual step of issuing its 2004 Annual Report very publicly by publishing it as an insert in a major daily newspaper.

Unlike in the past where the report was printed on glossy paper and circulated only to the standard suspects like community policing offices, the Police Board and other stakeholder groups, this year the Department made the decision to distribute it far more broadly to the general public.

I think that this was a very smart use of our Police Department’s communications budget.

Instead of the regular $15,000 price tag for developing, printing and distributing the Annual Report in a style that the vast majority of Vancouver residents never saw, an extra $5000 spent to reach thousands more folks was truly money well spent. It also provides some transparency and accountability for a force that has been dogged by allegations that it is neither.

It is too true that the public often only reads about our police department, and our hard working police officers, in their times of trouble – the Stanley Park beatings and the Guns and Roses concert debacle come to mind.

The good stories just don’t get told.

This format, which is also downloadable in PDF format from the Vancouver Police website for those of you who missed it the first time, allows the Department to tell the tales that don’t get covered by a media world built on conflict and bad news.

It’s not like I’m blaming the media for that.

Unless the good news has a daring “police dog chases down would be triple-murderer” it simply can’t make it onto the limited pages available, especially when there are stories to report on horrific car accidents and drug-related crimes.

Beyond the standard financial and planning information you’d find in any annual report, this report introduces Vancouver residents and taxpayers to the people behind the badges and their stories of going above and beyond the call of duty.

It is refreshing and inspiring reading. And it beats the heck out of the insipid and bland epistles issued by most public bodies.

It also serves the very important purpose of reminding Vancouver residents that our police force is involved in much more than just chasing down bad guys and crowd control of the Celebration of Light fireworks display.

They support victims of crime, they develop and implement community initiatives and they work pretty darn hard protecting our most vulnerable citizens from exploitation and harm.

Suddenly I have a new appreciation for and pride in our local cops. Sometimes we just need a reminder of the big role that these guys play in our communities.

Kudos to a Police Department that isn’t afraid to innovate in order to tell its important story.

As seen today in 24 Hours Daily

Oh Carole...Where ARE you???

One has to laugh. On March 29th, as we careened toward an election, I wrote a column about the missing-in-action Carole James. She had been elected NDP leader and then had disappeared completely off the political stage. Her quick to respond handlers asserted she was "traveling the province and building the party". Ok. Fine. I get that.

Then we had an election - she came out of the woodwork and, frankly, ran a pretty good effort for a neophyte politician. It was choppy at times and there was lots of internal NDP bickering about the strategy, but at the end of the day, she captured a whack more seats than anyone had expected.

So, one has to ask the question again: Where is Carole James? I've heard from Adrian Dix, the one-time fake memo boy who is scrambling for credibility by converting the tragic death of a baby in care into political mileage. I've heard from a couple of other NDP MLAs (though, interestingly enough, NOT David Chudnovsky about the potential BC Teacher's Fed job action).

But Carole, sweet Carole, has been nowhere to be found. I do hope someone has told her she can't keep hiding after the Legislature resumes in the fall...

Yes, my Libertarian slip is showing...

A couple of weeks ago, 24 Hours Daily ran a column I wrote about the City’s proposed replacement of car lanes on the Burrard Street Bridge with bike-only lanes. Some readers commented that it appeared I was willing to sell my children’s souls for continuing access to fossil fuels.

Nothing could be further from the truth – I just don’t happen to believe that guilt-tripping people into riding bicycles to work is how we’re going to solve the problems of global warming and depleting natural resources.

There are solutions, of course, but none of them are very politically popular, which is probably why we haven’t seen anything more than eco-platitudes from elected officials Federally, Provincially or Municipally.

It is far easier for politicians to pretend they are doing something for our environment when they strap a bike helmet on for a photo op.

So, what can we, as everyday British Columbians, do in our everyday lives to make a difference?

The answer that none of the vested environmental special interest groups wants you to hear is nothing. Nada. Zip.

That’s right. Drive your car. Water your lawns. Eat beef. Buy a ski boat. It isn’t really going to make that much of a difference if you don’t - other than a warming sense of moral superiority you might enjoy as your neighbour’s SUV speeds past your bike and splashes you with November mud.

The changes that are needed to occur for our environment to recover are far greater than those provided by the scattered individual efforts of a few of us. Look at the difficulty that the Feds have had selling their “One-Tonne Challenge” even with funny-man Rick Mercer leading the charge.

The vast majority of people make changes when they have either a carrot or stick incentive to do so. Moral superiority, while an enjoyable state of mind from time to time, doesn’t compel most people to limit car use or turn down the thermostat.

A municipality like West Vancouver, which recently instituted water metering, is on the right track. People need to pay for what they are consuming – and that price has to include the cost of accessing communally held resources like water or air. When a consumer buys new plastic patio furniture, it should include both the costs of materials and labour, but also the manufacturing “costs” of water, air and emissions.

The BC Government, by mandating low “heritage power” rates from BC Hydro, might be helping our economy in the short term, but every economist will tell you that cheap power gets wasted and expensive power doesn’t.

Only when the price tag for running the sprinkler, fuelling up the car or flicking on the lights actually reflects their true costs will Canadians start making different choices. Until our water is metered and we have to pay for the carbon dioxide our cars spew into the atmosphere, we will not change our behavior.

And all the bike lanes and stand-up funny men in the world aren’t going to change that simple economic fact.

(As seen today in 24 Hours Daily)

Larry, Larry, Quite Contrary

On April 15, 2005 Larry Campbell was front and centre, along with Gordon Campbell and Paul Martin, at the ceremonial signing of the Federal gas-tax transfer to the Province of B.C.

By all accounts it was a historic occasion and an opportunity to free some of the usurious gas tax collected by Ottawa for local requirements.

The Feds clearly weren’t interested in a tax cut for consumers in their typical “government know best” fashion – but maybe this was a good alternative.

Larry Campbell told anyone who would listen about the importance of this agreement to the cities and the leadership that the Federal Liberals were showing on the issue. Of course, he didn’t mention that the Federal Liberals had been in power for 13 years and, only when faced with an immenient and scandal-driven election, were pulling out the cash card for local governments.

When Conservative Leader Stephen Harper rightly pointed out that, under our constitution, the money would actually be sent to the Provinces and then distributed to Canadian cities, Larry Campbell said the Conservatives were treating the cities like children and would take away the gas tax funding.

Stephen Harper travelled to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities meeting in St. John’s in June and announced that the Conservatives would support the transfer, honour existing agreements and provide equitable funding for provinces that had not yet signed. In addition, he committed to match or exceed the $5 billion in funds promised by Paul Martin.

Larry Campbell said that Stephen Harper wasn’t to be trusted, was embarrassing the country and was going to hurt the country with his “political brinkmanship”.

His dabbling in Federal politics raised eyebrows, that’s for sure, but none of it was surprising stuff from Larry Campbell. The reason his personal popularity was so high before his resignation a few weeks ago was his refusal to let the facts get in the way of a good sound bite.

We all just thought Larry was being Larry and perhaps acting a little ham-fisted in his drive to ensure the Federal funds landed in Vancouver’s rapidly depleting city coffers. The transfer would mean that the City could hold the line on property taxes, even in despite of the increases in city spending since the COPE term began in 2002.

Turns out, though, that Larry knew exactly what he was doing – paving his way for a post-City Hall career. For the man who “isn’t a politician”, Tuesday afternoon’s announcement of a lucrative Senate appointment sure made him look like one.

It’s also a pretty nice payback for his loyal Federal Liberal pit bull service in this spring’s “phony election”. As Harper and Martin grappled in the House, Larry Campbell was pulling no punches forecasting disaster for Canadian cities if the Conservatives were successful in defeating the Liberals with a non-confidence vote.

Fortunately for the Liberals, Belinda Stronach’s eye-popping defection precluded that possibility, but Martin clearly hasn’t forgotten his kilt-clad sycophant.

Unlike the Conservatives who pledge to shift the Senate to an elected one, the Liberals are quite happy to reward their friends and insiders for their partisan efforts with high-paying and low-work Red Chamber appointments.

Well done Larry. I’m not sure why we ever thought you were a different kind of politician – turns out you are just like the rest.

(As seen today in 24 Hours Daily)